Ridley returns for Patriots

Monday

Dec 9, 2013 at 2:59 PM

FOXBORO -- One week after he was a healthy scratch for the first time in his three NFL seasons, Stevan Ridley returned to the Patriots' backfield on a limited basis on Sunday. He carried the ball eight times for 35 yards, and he caught one pass for t

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

FOXBORO -- One week after he was a healthy scratch for the first time in his three NFL seasons, Stevan Ridley returned to the Patriots' backfield on a limited basis on Sunday. He carried the ball eight times for 35 yards, and he caught one pass for two yards.

Most importantly, Ridley didn't fumble -- the first time since October he'd played in a game and not put the ball on the ground.

Ridley seemed to run tentatively in the first half, seemingly -- and justifiably -- thinking more about ball security than dodging tacklers. But he seemed to run with more confidence in the second half, including a pair of strong runs to open the drive on which the Patriots lost Rob Gronkowski early in the third quarter. He rushed up the middle for 12 yards early in the fourth quarter.

Though the repeated fumbles seemed to be the reason Bill Belichick benched Ridley a week ago at Houston, the coach offered little insight into the reason Ridley sat or the reason he returned a week later.

"The decisions we make every game are really the same -- what combination of players we feel like puts us in the most competitive situation," Belichick said. "That encompasses a lot of things, including special teams, and obviously offense and defense and depth and game plan and your opponent and everything else. We'll continue to make those decisions on a weekly basis. Sometimes it's the same, it's a similar group of players, and other times it changes. Sometimes that's injury-related. Sometimes it's related to other things."